Special Lecture 3

Special Lecture

Is Justice alive? Throughout the long history, the word justice has existed in human society. People do not know how important justice is for human society. That is, there are very few people who know exactly about justice and what roles it plays in human society. That is why there have been cases where justice was missing or never saw the light.

Justice Is The Light To Brighten Society

The definition of justice is the light where brightens human society. It has been observed that in a society which justice was missing, a wide variety of odd phenomena were taking place. For example, in such society, injustice and corruption spread and venal officials gained power. Thus, fraud, trickery and falsehood became so rampant that the societies came to be onto the road to collapse. Societies where justice stood upright could be free of such bad things as injustice, corruption, venal officials, etc.

If we forget justice, our society can never make a bright society in any way. This means that justice is the essential teaching in human society. However, as very few people are aware of justice, it has never been explained or taught. Fifty years after this country was founded or five thousand years after this people settled down in this land, it is not too much to say that it is the first time to discuss the definition of justice and announce it .

Cruel Politics Is Scarier Than A Tiger

People have not yet realized obviously that, no matter how many laws are established to make a society a good world, a phenomenon occurs that it causes life in human society to be much harder if it is done in a society without justice. Let’s give an example from an old Chinese story in order to show how hard it is to live in a society without justice.

In an old state of Lu(魯), one day Confucius and his disciples were crossing a remote mountain when they hear a woman’s plaintive cry. Confucius sent a disciple, Zilu(子路) to find out why she was crying so sadly.

Zilu said to her, “Why are you crying sadly alone in this remote mountain?”

She said, “This area is really dreadful. Several years ago, my father-in-law was killed by a tiger, last year my husband, and a few days ago my child was taken away. Hence, I built them graves and am crying.”

Zilu said, “If so, why don’t you live along with people in a village but live here to have had such terrible things?”

Zilu got an unexpected answer from the lady. “In this remote mountain, there are tigers but no corrupt officials.”

Here comes an old story that when Confucius heard the whole story he left the teaching, ‘Corrupt officials’ tyranny is much scarier than tigers.’

In a society where justice is properly kept, the quality of peope is so high that corruption or injustice cannot be observed. In this world, there are such countries. On the contrary, there are much more countries where people are suffering from the loss of justice.

Must Follow Reasons

I feel very sorry whenever I see our society. It is because, even though our society is getting worse and worse, nobody is to reveal the truth and even knows about the truth itself.

These days newspapers are full of feature articles about the 50th anniversary of the country and lots of television shows with the catchphrase “Let’s establish a new country” are on. However, with all these phrases they just put forward their own thoughts and claims.

The point that we note here is the fact that there is a meaning in the world and the world moves by the meaning. The meaning is formed and appears by what exists in reasons. Hence just suggesting their own thoughts and claims with reasons in the world disregarded is nothing less than stupid people’s behaviors.

If justice stands upright in our society, nobody can claim their own thoughts or what they don’t know in public.

In order to improve the quality of human beings, we must not disobey the meaning of the world and ignore what exists in the reason(Natural law). However, today our society does so.

Justice reveals what is and things of human society. Justice is needed most for the continuation of human society.

Nothing is achievable in a society without justice. When we drive cars, if drivelines are missing, they will never move. The same is true of justice in human society. Justice creates great power in societies of state. In other words, it is the essence which becomes the driving force of the power.

Living with justice forgotten is the same with abandoning all the hopes that we are to live righteously. If societies ignore justice and don’t get it upright, those who have great abilities cannot perform proper roles.

In societies where there is no justice, the difference between right and wrong disappears and then the societies are ruled by men of power.

In societies with justice, rulers must consider the public. However, without justice they don’t care about the public because laws in such societies are used not for revealing truth(fact as it is) and the truth(Natural law) but as the tools for their ruling. In those societies, incompetent people gain power by flattering the powerful. In that way, those societies become worse gradually. We must pay attention to these kinds of things.

Reality Of Our Education System and Teachings

Justice is defined as the light which brightens a society. It means that, if justice disappears in a society, the society is covered with darkness. In the darkness, what can we see and what can we learn? In the darkness, we always think of dreamy, illusory things and keep them in our minds. In a society of no justice, how can people be properly educated and how can enterprises be operated?

Newspapers and broadcasting stations say that the quantitative expansion of Korean education system has been the biggest in the world for the past 50 years. They also emphasize that Korean education system has produced the most students who were highly educated. In other words, the most graduation certificates have been received. By the way, I want to ask what was taught during the process that so many students received graduation certificates. It cannot be guaranteed that students who received education in the state of not understanding properly what exists can take on certain duties and accomplish them properly, even though they got degrees. How can we entrust the students who are unaware of what is with tasks? People say recklessly, “Does justice feed us?” “Does truth feed us?” If we stay in the darkness and are not aware of what is, how can we hope that we will lead righteous lives? It is definitely impossible.

Morality and Conscience

Through newspapers or broadcasting, various groups or organizations are shouting the words, morality and conscience. By the way, in a society where justice has been missing, how can there be someone who knows about morality and conscience? Where nobody has taught morality, how can anyone be aware of morality. People have said that we must always think highly of morality but they have never taught morality itself.

In the ethics textbook of elementary school, a story about Admiral Lee Soon Shin appears. The fact that he went forward to fight against the enemy for the country can be a teaching but such teaching cannot make morality understood.

People view that western philosophy and eastern philosophy are different. When philosophers are asked to tell the definition of philosophy, most of them hesitate to answer it. It is because they have never learned from someone who clearly knows about philosophy. The same is true of morality. From those who have never learned about morality, how can we ask for it?

In a dictionary, morality is Do-Duk(道德, dàodé) in Chinese characters. Do(道) means a way and Deok(德) virtue. Morality means to make human ways through righteous behaviors. What is Deok(德)? It means right behaviors. Right behaviors can remain great things in human society. This is morality.

Western people call it love and eastern people call it Do-Deok(道德). The difference in words which comes from respective environments or teachings is a matter of expression.

To leave good teachings in the world through right behaviors is blessing. That is, the definition of love is blessing and so is that of Do-Deok(道德).

For better understanding, in English, 5 is pronounced five and in Korean, ‘Da-Seot’. It is a matter of terminology. It is correct to say that Love and Do-Deok(道德) have the same meaning but the different terms. It has always been in human history that Do-Deok(道德) is lost in a society without justice. In a state of no justice, how can people know correctly what exists and without knowing correctly what exists how can people achieve it properly? It is the hope for those who want to live good lives that justice must be alive in a human society.

A Society would rather do without laws. Even if there are no laws, if justice is alive in the society fraud, trickery, injustice and corruption never occur because all the members think highly of conscience. However, if there isn’t justice in the society, no matter how many laws there may be and no matter how high penalties there may be, injustice and corruption will not disappear, venal officials will gain power, and fraud, trickery and falsehood will become rampant. In such a society, it is really hard for a just person to do big things and those who are wrong ruin the society with their own thoughts. These things have been observed in the history of the past and the present society and such will be experienced in any future societies can experience them.

Our society’s biggest misfortune is that the members don’t have the proper understandings of justice and the Do-Deok(道德).